Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2578

"Tell All The Truth, But Tell It Slant"

by Zoe Pollock

Mark Vernon has a lovely rumination on the philosophy of Emily Dickinson's poetry:

What she realizes is that the truth which is beyond us, which is discerned only indirectly, is the only truth that is truly worth seeking. That which we can readily grasp and manipulate is too easy for us. It's humdrum. It leaves life too small for us, the creature with an eye for the transcendent. But look further, and what you are offered is what she calls truth's 'superb surprise'. That's...

Stay Humble

 

(Image of Iguazu Falls, Brazil by Flickr user: SF Brit)

by Zoe Pollock

The 18 places to feel dwarfed by nature.

Flickr - Recreation - Outdoors - Urban Exploration - Image Galleries

Every Single Thing Is Future Trash

by Zoe Pollock

The Believer's Alex Carp interviews Robin Nagle, anthropologist-in-residence at New York City's Department of Sanitation. The entire read is both utterly obvious and totally fascinating for how little we think of our collective trash:

It's an avoidance of addressing mortality, ephemerality, the deeper cost of the way we live. We generate as much trash as we do in part because we move at a speed that requires it. I don't have time to take care of the stuff that surrounds me...

The View From Your Window

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 11.30 pm

United Arab Emirates - Middle East - Government - Dubai Autodrome - Business and Economy

The Clever Method Of Control

by Zoe Pollock

"Reality" can be a precarious thing these days, but it doesn't stop us from looking for it on television, even in the darkest of settings. In an appreciated blast from the past, Lapham's Quarterly excerpts a voice in time - Edward Jurist, television writer and producer on various TV quiz shows, including Quiz Kids and $64,000 Challenge, testifying in Washington on rigged games:

Mr. Lishman: Were the contestants given the questions and answers in advance of the program?

Mr...

Way Of The Worms

by Zoe Pollock

Jessa Crispin wants to live the romantic European city life, but can't deny her crazy Kansas genes and the pressures to radically go off the grid. Two books help her find the middle ground:

Real life is glacial. But it does actually require you to start somewhere. I took comfort in The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen because it actually tells you how to start. They should sell these books packaged together. Once Radical Homemakers makes you suicidal, The Urban...

Mission Archived

 

Image: John Glenn, Mercury - February 1962

by Zoe Pollock

NASA has added over 50 years of photos to Flickr's public photography archive, The Commons. Elsewhere around the universe, Wired is featuring a pretty sharp collection of Saturn pictures from this summer.

(Hat Tip: Laughing Squid)

Flickr - NASA - Commons - John Glenn - Mercury

The Art Of Losing

by Zoe Pollock

Evan Andrews catalogs the top 10 lost technologies, from the Roman birth control herb Silphium to that "je ne sais quoi" sound of a Stradivari violin.

(Hat Tip: Kottke)

Roman - Health - Zoe Pollock - Languages - Programming

"High Strung"

(Photo by Harold Edgerton)

by Zoe Pollock

In time for the U.S. Open, Tom Perotta reports in the new Atlantic issue on the professional athlete's psychological choke:

To hit a 120-mph serve, a player must allow the body to do what it has been trained to do. Thinking mid-serve causes "paralysis by analysis," an attack on performance by the prefrontal cortex, which, in an attempt to control closely synchronized neural activities and muscle twitches, instead sabotages them. "We all know how to...

About My Job: The Management Consultant

by Conor Friedersdorf

A reader writes:

I'm a management consultant.   In particular, I help companies grow and find new business opportunities and launch them. Consultants are reviled in the business community, in the media, in movies, and often in the businesses we've been hired to help.  We're seen as highly-paid professional hit-men who come in and snidely boss around people who know their businesses best, and who are we to tell them what to do?  Worse than that, there are companies who are...